Sad Signs – Pictures from the Santa Catalina Mountains During the Government Shutdown, October 2013

Joy and Sadness – an informative message at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains.

The shutdown of the Federal Government is, at least for me, (beyond encouraging people to think about improving how our government works and/or who we elect) pointless.

One victim of the shutdown is our Federal Lands – a shame since they are truly one of the best things about the USA – parks like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon closed? Why? I was certainly deeply disappointed to have a vacation with good friends in the Grand Canyon destroyed – camping, dayhikes, R2R criss-crossing with friends, supporting R2R2R runs…

Thankfully Tucson is surrounded by quite a bit of National Forest, BLM, State and County land that is – unlike our National Parks which are ‘truly’ closed – still open for hiking/climbing/running/recreation!

The trails of the Santa Catalina Mountains (Mount Lemmon) remain open – trailheads, pullouts and the highway – open – but bathrooms, visitor centers, picnic areas and campgrounds are closed.

Most of the trailheads at the base of the mountain are open, but the Sabino Canyon facilities (including bathrooms) and parking area are closed – if you can figure out where to park the area is still open to hiking (the Pima County Bear Canyon Trailhead is one option – beware the No Parking signs along Sabino Canyon Road near the parking lot entrance…)

The Molino Basin area is partly open – this is the only trailhead I saw where some of the parking spots were blocked – perhaps the parking spaces were blocked for reasons other than the shutdown? (note that the Prison Camp gate is closed limiting parking to the smaller parking areas near the highway – but that gate has been closed for months now).

Sadly every Picnic Area and Campground that I saw was closed and either gated or blocked by caution tape and a sign. Note that the caution tape blocks access to the entire area (including parking) – not just to bathrooms/picnic tables…

The Windy Point Bathrooms – closed… Summerhaven has the only open public bathrooms on the Mountain that I am aware of – of course Summerhaven and Ski Valley businesses are still open as well.

Taking a break and enjoying the view across the San Pedro River into the Galiuro and Pinaleno Mountains – vistas are open!

Campgrounds are closed – interesting that these signs have a slightly different tone than the white signs at the picnic area.

The Summit Trailhead – alive with cars and hikers! The Bathrooms are closed but the trailhead and hiking is open!

3 thoughts on “Sad Signs – Pictures from the Santa Catalina Mountains During the Government Shutdown, October 2013”

At least the trails are open. But that’s a lot of closure in your photos. If this is being done because there’s no money (which is weird because in many cases it doesn’t cost money to allow the public in these places, eg on a trail in the Grand Canyon) it’s odd that they paid people to go around putting up all those signs and plastic. It’s also weird that the national parks would be closed entirely, as in nobody is allowed to set foot on the ground, while national forests and other lands under federal control remain open.

The whole situation is so surreal that I am not really sure anything would completely make sense. In the Santa Catalina Mountains it seems like they closed the areas/things that take the most manpower, but…